This past February, I got sick–like really sick–about a month before really sick would have meant a sprint to a COVID testing site, and I fell quickly into feeling a little hopeless.
I wanted to believe there was something to be learned from feeling this crummy–maybe a lesson in remembering how incredible “normal,” healthy days are — but I didn’t need to be reminded! Just before falling ill, I had been so actively grateful for a healthy body that to get sick felt almost insulting, as though losing something I actively appreciated was against some cosmic set of rules. It was a sobering reminder. I believe gratitude is the antidote for many things: envy, entitlement, even worry, but it is not a cure-all for trouble. That should be an obvious statement, I know, but I think some part of me really thought that while trouble might come, it would spare the things I remembered to be really grateful for. And just like that, it wasn’t gratitude anymore at all–it was a grasp for control in an effort to feel protected–and there was the lesson.
What in your world started as one thing and has become something else entirely? What worked, but doesn’t work anymore? What was good, but now needs to go? We’re in a season of new beginnings — the Jewish new year was this weekend and Fall began this week — and new beginnings mean new things.
Right now, we need change. We need the new thing.
“The world is wild,” I’ve both heard and said. And it has been. It is time for a new thing. It’s time to walk in purpose and service. It’s time to take inventory: not all that belonged before belongs now, and that’s okay. It’s time to let some things go and let new things find you.
In recent history, “I just don’t see a way,” has been a natural response to many of the issues at the forefront of national conversations. The feeling seems to be that the past is overwhelming and too hard to overcome. It’s a fair thought, but not a hope-filled one. Hope whispers to forget the former things, to dwell not on the past. Hope whispers, “I am doing a new thing – do you not perceive it?”
It’s time for a new season; for a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
It’s time to question what we’re exalting, to recognize our repeated worries as prayers to anxiety, and step into the new season.
It’s time for a new thing.
– LL
Big media week – if you need something to watch, I’ve gotcha covered.
Schitt’s Creek (TV Show)
It’s feel-good, laugh-out-loud funny. It took me two full episodes (they’re only 21ish minutes each) and actually looking at the TV the entire time (the facial expressions are priceless) to get into it, but it’s so well worth it. (I’m late to the game–the show took home 5 Emmys this week.) Watch on Netflix.
On The Basis of Sex (Movie)
We watched this after the news of RBG’s passing on Friday and I can’t recommend it highly enough, no matter how you align politically. It’s an inspiring reminder that one person’s persistence really can change the world for many. I went to bed feeling childlike-inspired and who couldn’t use more of that?